Winter Weather

6:27 pm

Sun November 21, 2010

Deep freeze, snow showers visit western Washington

For most central Puget Sound dwellers, the season's first snow showers were light and didn't create accumulations. This photo was taken in Bellevue on Sunday.

Twitpic/@JerryMoneta

Western Washington is experiencing its coldest temperatures of the season, and it's about to get a lot colder.

The National Weather Service in Seattle has issued a winter weather advisory for much of the state through Monday night. Southwest Washington's interior, through Olympia and perhaps as far north as Seattle, could see snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches through Monday evening. That's when a second cold front is expected.

Olympia could see up to three inches of snow, with four inches possible in the foothills. Temperatures will remain frigid through the next few days. Tuesday’s high is expected to top 30 degrees with low temperature staying in the high teens or low 20s.

Temperatures will drop into the 20's throughout the western part of the state tonight. Some areas could see lows in the teens.

University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass writes in his blog that the latest snowfall models show most of the Puget Sound area with a very low probability of getting any accumulations:

Bottom line...NO SNOW in Seattle, but white stuff over SW Washington and Oregon.

The weekend brought the first lowland snow this fall. Northwest Washington got the first taste of it Friday night. Through Sunday, snow showers had been reported in many areas, with scant to light accumulations.

Temperatures were just a bit too warm for much of it to stick in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region.

Emergency Shelters Open Around Sound

In preparation for the cold snap, Seattle opened two emergency severe weather shelters, one at City Hall (4th Avenue between Cherry and James streets), the other at the Frye Hotel. Combined, the locations hold 75 people.

KING 5 TV spoke with several homeless people in downtown Seattle as the temperatures dropped. Many say the lack of shelter spaces is a big worry.

"It's overcrowded. And, like at this one place, it only takes 50 (people) and other places only take 75. And you can see the mass amount of people around here that don't have any place to go," said David, a homeless Vietnam veteran.

The two severe-weather shelters will be open through Tuesday, and perhaps longer.

In Everett, the Salvation Army will open its emergency shelter tonight (Sunday).